Bean, once the smallest student at the Battle School, and Ender Wiggin's right hand, has grown to be a power on Earth. He served the Hegemon as strategist and general in the terrible wars that followed Ender's defeat of the alien empire attacking Earth. Now he wishes for a safe place to build a family, something he has never known, but there is nowhere on Earth that does not harbor his enemies; old enemies from the days in Ender's Jeesh, new enemies from the wars on Earth.

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Shadow Puppets

Best selling SF author Orson Scott Card brings to life a new chapter in the saga of Ender's Earth.

Earth and its society have been changed irrevocably in the aftermath of Ender Wiggin's victory over the Formics. The unity forced upon the warring nations by an alien enemy has shattered. Nations are rising again, seeking territory and influence, and most of all, seeking to control the skills and loyalty of the children from the Battle School.

At the end of Shadow of the Giant, Bean flees to the stars with three of his children--the three who share the engineered genes that gave him both hyper-intelligence and a short, cruel physical life. The time dilation granted by the speed of their travel gives Earth’s scientists generations to seek a cure, to no avail. In time, they are forgotten - a fading ansible signal speaking of events lost to Earth’s history. But the Delphikis are about to make a discovery that will let them save themselves, and perhaps all of humanity in days to come.

Shadow of the Hegemon

Orson Scott Card tells a tale long awaited by millions of fans: the story of how Bean turned away from his first friend, Ender, and became the tactical genius who won the Earth for Ender's brother, Peter, who became the Hegemon.

Ender's Shadow

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin was not the only child in the Battle School; he was just the best of the best. In this book, Card tells the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean, the one who became Ender's right hand, part of his team, in the final battle against the Buggers. Bean's past was a battle just to survive. His success brought him to the attention of the Battle School's recruiters.

Andrew Wiggin is told that he can no longer live on Earth, and he realizes that this is the truth. He has become far more than just a boy who won a game: he is the Savior of Earth, a hero, a military genius whose allegiance is sought by every nation of the newly shattered Earth Hegemony. He is offered the choice of living in isolation on Eros, at one of the Hegemony's training facilities, but instead the 12-year-old chooses to leave his home world and begin the long relativistic journey out to the colonies.

Children of the Mind

The planet Lusitania is home to three sentient species: a large colony of humans; the Pequeninos; and the Hive Queen, who was brought there by Ender Wiggin. Once again, the enemy (the Starways Congress) has gathered a fleet and is threatening to destroy Lusitania. Ender's oldest friend, Jane, an evolved computer intelligence, is trying to save the three sentient species of Lusitania, but the Starways Congress is destroying the computer world she lives in.

Xenocide is the third installment of the Ender series. On Lusitania, Ender found a world where humans and pequeninos and the Hive Queen could all live together; where three very different intelligent species could find common ground at last. Or so he thought. But Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus which kills all humans it infects, but which the pequeninos require in order to transform into adults.

The mining ship El Cavador is far out from Earth, in the deeps of the Kuiper Belt, beyond Pluto. Other mining ships, and the families that live on them, are few and far between this far out. So when El Cavador’s telescopes pick up a fast-moving object coming in-system, it’s hard to know what to make of it. It’s massive and moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light.

El Cavador has other problems. Their systems are old and failing. The family is getting too big for the ship. There are claim-jumping corporate ships bringing Asteroid Belt tactics to the Kuiper Belt.

Speaker for the Dead

In the aftermath of his terrible war, Ender Wiggin disappeared, and a powerful voice arose: the Speaker for the Dead, who told the true story of the Bugger War. Now, long years later, a second alien race has been discovered by Portuguese colonists on the planet Lusitania. But again the aliens' ways are strange and frightening...again, humans die. And it is only the Speaker for the Dead, who is also Ender Wiggin the Xenocide, who has the courage to confront the mystery...and the truth.

A War of Gifts: An Ender Story

At Battle School, there is only one purpose, only one curriculum: the strategy and tactics of war. The children are drawn from all nations, all races, all religions. There is no room for cultural differences, no room for religious observances, and certainly no room for Santa Claus.

One hundred years before Ender's Game, the aliens arrived on Earth with fire and death. Earth Afire by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston is the story of the First Formic War. Victor Delgado beat the alien ship to Earth, but just barely. Not soon enough to convince skeptical governments that there was a threat. They didn’t believe that until space stations and ships and colonies went up in sudden flame. And when that happened, only Mazer Rackham and the Mobile Operations Police could move fast enough to meet the threat.

Nearly 100 years before the events of Orson Scott Card’s best-selling novel Ender’s Game, humans were just beginning to step off Earth and out into the Solar System. A thin web of ships in both asteroid belts; a few stations; a corporate settlement on Luna. No one had seen any sign of other space-faring races; everyone expected that First Contact, if it came, would happen in the future, in the empty reaches between the stars. Then a young navigator on a distant mining ship saw something moving too fast, heading directly for our sun.

Why we think it’s a great listen: It’s easy to say that when it comes to sci-fi you either love it or you hate it. But with Ender’s Game, it seems to be you either love it or you love it.... The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Enter Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, the result of decades of genetic experimentation.

Rigg is well trained at keeping secrets. Only his father knows the truth about Rigg’s strange talent for seeing the paths of people’s pasts. But when his father dies, Rigg is stunned to learn just how many secrets Father had kept from him - secrets about Rigg’s own past, his identity, and his destiny. And when Rigg discovers that he has the power not only to see the past, but also to change it, his future suddenly becomes anything but certain.

Ruins: Pathfinder, Book 2

When Rigg and his friends crossed the Wall between the only world they knew and a world they could not imagine, he hoped he was leading them to safety. But the dangers in this new wallfold are more difficult to see. Rigg, Umbo, and Param know that they cannot trust the expendable, Vadesh - a machine shaped like a human, created to deceive - but they are no longer certain that they can even trust one another. But they will have little choice. Because although Rigg can decipher the paths of the past, he can’t yet see the horror that lies ahead: A destructive force with deadly intentions is hurtling toward Garden.

The Memory of Earth: Homecoming, Volume 1

High above the planet Harmony, the Oversoul watches. Its task, programmed so many millennia ago, is to guard the human settlement on this planet, to protect this fragile remnant of Earth from all threats...to protect them, most of all, from themselves.

Ender's Game Alive: The Full Cast Audioplay

Experience Ender’s Game as you’ve never heard it before! With an all-new, original script written by Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game Alive is a full-cast audio drama that reimagines the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning classic.

Publisher's Summary

Bean, once the smallest student at the Battle School, and Ender Wiggin's right hand, has grown to be a power on Earth. He served the Hegemon as strategist and general in the terrible wars that followed Ender's defeat of the alien empire attacking Earth. Now he wishes for a safe place to build a family, something he has never known, but there is nowhere on Earth that does not harbor his enemies; old enemies from the days in Ender's Jeesh, new enemies from the wars on Earth. To find security, Bean and Petra must once again follow in Ender's footsteps. They must leave Earth behind, in the control of the Hegemon, and look to the stars.

This is my favorite science fiction series. The characters are easy to identify with, and you will find yourself sucked into this imaginary universe, nick named the Enderverse by fans.

Recommended order of reading (in my opinion): Ender?s Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind. Reading the books in this order will keep you interested and keep the story moving more naturally.

If after reading all of these wonderful books you are still itching for an Enderverse fix then read First Meetings. The list above is sorted by the Enderverse timeline. Meaning that the flow of events in the stories are uninterrupted. If you were to read the books in the order they were published, you would bounce back and forth in between time and few of the plot twists in future books would be revealed before you wanted them to be known. First Meetings, however contains short stories that occur both before and in between the list above within the Enderverse.

This was a nice addition to the series. The plot developed a little slowly with some distractions along the way that seemed unnecessary at first, but it eventually came together nicely. Keep you guessing how it will turn out! And of course, leaves the door open for more sequels.
The reading uses several narrators, male and female, most of them pretty good. It's often unclear why it switches to a different narrator. There was one odd segment in the middle where a conversation was "enacted" by several narrators, but mostly it's just a single reader per chapter or segment. Accents and personalities came through pretty well.

Having read Ender's Game, Enders Shadow, Shadow of the Hegman, Shadow of the Puppets (not great)and now Shadow of the Giant in that order, I recomend this as an important and touching part of the series. There are some relegious parts that might not appeal to some;however, this should be read. You will not be disapointed.Am now off to Speaker for the Dead,Zenocide and finaly Children of the Mind. Will miss some of our friends however.

What can I say that hasn't been said about Uncle Orson's ability to capture the soul of his characters? In my opinion, that is the best thing about his work. They are so human and real and often tragic. It is apparent that Card really cares about these characters and lives in their world with them. He deftly brings the reader along for the ride.
This is a grand and beautiful story that stands on it's own even though it is a sequel. The plot is excellent. It is intricate, exciting and very well paced. For fans of the series, this will justify their devotion. But, this volume can be enjoyed by everyone for it's own sake. I couldn't put it down. The narration is excellent too. It adds immensely to the feeling of the story.

I usually hate "Companion Series" books, they usually seem to decline in entertainment value after the original book (Enders Game, in this case), especially when the original book seems to neatly end with no loose ends to warrant another book.

The Ender series is MUCH different, the "follow-up" books just keep getting better... The characters are well fleshed out (sometimes it seems a little too much time is wasted fleshing out a character, but it ends up being just the right amount of information you needed to know to keep up with the character's motivations further along in the book, or series).

If you liked Ender's Game, then the follow-up books are a "Must have", even if you think "How could they be better than the original"?

The unabridged versions are a bit long winded at times, but you get details that you NEED to have to keep up with the complex stories being woven.

Card says, "hearing" the books are the way he wanted them presented, and having several narrators in each book makes the audio books MUCH better.

I just finished listening and had to voice my opinion. Orson Scott Card has another winner in the Ender series. Giant continues with the characters that we have grown to know and love from the previous books and continues to build possibilities for future novels. The narration is fantastic and keeps you in the story from beginning to end. Worthwhile reading!

SHADOW OF THE GIANT is the incredible finale of the Shadow Quartet (ENDER'S SHADOW, SHADOW OF THE HEGEMON, AND SHADOW PUPPETS). Any fan of science- fiction will love the whole Ender series including this newest addition. Card follows Bean, Petra, and Peter Wiggin as they all try to complete their final goals. Peter attempts to unite the world in peace. Bean and Petra try to find all of their lost children.

This book redeems the previous two books in the series and I am now happy that I finished the "Shadow" series. The storyline speeds up and improves in this book compared to the previous two offerings and the whole saga is nicely rounded off.

I still hold that by writing these Shadow books, OSC has undermined the original four "Ender" books, mainly eroding the strength of character and actions of Ender and Peter Wiggin. This is a shame, as these two characters had been so well worked on and developed by OSC in the original series that they each had a magically unique aura by the series end.

Nevertheless, reading the eight books has been a great experience and I would strongly recommend reading the first seven to reach this brilliant book. I will probably continue with the other 3 books in what has been termed the "Enderverse".

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

GhostMuppet

Stratford-Upon-Avon, United Kingdom

4/9/13

Overall

"Slightly better, but still a shadow on Enders Game"

Finally, the series of Bean has been completed. The series started off so well, but really trailed off. The conclusion was pretty predictable and took some time to reach that conclusion.

The audio itself is not too bad, nothing to write home about. If you have read to this book, you may as well continue and complete the series.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Rayed

Khobar, Saudi Arabia

11/24/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"The most religious intolerant book I ever read."

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

One of the most raciest and religious intolerant things I have ever read. Although I knew before lessoning that Mr. Scott was a Christian missionary and is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but the amount venom written in this book against Islam made me feel sick. I could not imagine that a Christian can carry so much hatred in his heart but then maybe Mr. Scott think by being religious intolerant that he will be continuing his missionary work as a writer but I don’t think that this process is effective.

Could you see Shadow of the Giant being made into a movie or a TV series? Who would the stars be?

I hope not

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

Gustav

London, United Kingdom

8/20/12

Overall

"The Bean story is loosing steam"

This third Bean book is not as good as the first two, but still a good story. If you have enjoyed the first two, keep going. Temper your expectations and you will enjoy it, no doubt.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

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